A Holly Growers Committee is exploring the possibility of buying Holly sugar factories in Sidney, MT, and Worland and Torrington, WY. In fact, it has contacted growers in the hope of raising money for a feasibility study.
The committee is calling for both growers and landowners that had sugarbeets on their property during the 2000 crop year to contribute $2 per acre and reply to a questionnaire about their interest. Those who respond and contribute to the study will become members of the new cooperative if the deal moves forward.
The committee has hired Randon Wilson of the firm Jones, Waldo, Holbrook and McDonough in Salt Lake City, UT. He is a cooperative lawyer who represented the Snake River sugar growers in their buyout of the Amalgamated Sugar Company and is representing the Rocky Mountain Sugar Growers Cooperative in the buyout of Western Sugar Company.
The group is investigating the possibility of joining with the Rocky Mountain Sugar Growers Cooperative bringing all nine factories in the Rocky Mountain area under one ownership. The committee has contacted that board for preliminary talks.